Union arrangements in American workplaces come in five main types: closed shop, union shop, agency shop, maintenance of membership, and open shop. They differ in one basic way — whether joining a union or paying it money is a condition of keeping your job. Federal statutes set the floor, state right-to-work laws and Supreme Court decisions reshape it, and a handful of industries operate under entirely separate rules.
Closed Shop
A closed shop requires you to already be a union member before an employer can hire you. No membership, no job. Congress effectively banned this arrangement in the private sector through the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947. Under 29 U.S.C. § 158(a)(3), it is an unfair labor practice for an employer to use hiring or employment conditions to encourage or discourage union membership, with a narrow carve-out that only permits requiring membership at least 30 days after someone starts work.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 U.S. Code 158 – Unfair Labor Practices Because the statute never permits requiring membership before hiring, the closed shop is off the table.
Construction is the one industry with something close. Section 8(f) of the National Labor Relations Act lets construction employers and unions enter pre-hire agreements and use hiring halls, because workers on construction projects move between employers and job sites frequently. The membership deadline drops from 30 days to seven.2National Labor Relations Board. National Labor Relations Act – Section: Unfair Labor Practices Non-members can still be hired, so it isn’t technically a closed shop, but it’s the closest arrangement that survives.
Union Shop
A union shop lets the employer hire anyone, but new employees must join the union or start paying dues within a set window. For most industries that window is 30 days from the start of employment. In construction, it’s seven.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 U.S. Code 158 – Unfair Labor Practices
If a worker doesn’t meet that obligation, the union can ask the employer to terminate them. The process has requirements. Before requesting a discharge, the union must notify the employee that they’re behind on dues and give them a reasonable chance to catch up. It must also tell the employee they have the right to become a non-member who pays only a reduced fee covering representational costs.3National Labor Relations Board. Causing or Attempting To Cause an Employer To Discriminate Skipping either step makes the discharge request itself an unfair labor practice.
Financial Core Membership
Despite the label “union shop,” Supreme Court rulings have made clear that no one can be forced into full union membership as a condition of employment. You can instead choose financial core status, paying only the portion of dues that funds collective bargaining and contract administration — not the share that goes to political activity, organizing, or charitable causes.4National Labor Relations Board. Employer/Union Rights and Obligations The trade-off: financial core members lose internal privileges like voting in union elections, running for office, and voting on contract ratification. They’re still covered by every term of the collective bargaining agreement.
Agency Shop
An agency shop makes financial core status the default. Nobody has to join the union. Every worker in the bargaining unit must, however, pay a service fee to cover the union’s representational costs. The reasoning is straightforward: if the union negotiates your wages and handles your grievances, you should share in those costs.
The exact fee varies by union, based on what share of its spending goes to representational versus non-representational activities. The union must break those figures out and make them available to fee-paying non-members.
Janus and Public Sector Employees
Agency shop arrangements in government workplaces effectively ended with the Supreme Court’s 2018 decision in Janus v. AFSCME. The Court held that compelling public-sector workers to subsidize union speech violates the First Amendment, overruling decades of precedent. It rejected the “labor peace” and free-rider justifications, finding that unions willingly represent non-members even without compulsory payments.5Justia U.S. Supreme Court Center. Janus v AFSCME, 585 U.S. ___ (2018) After Janus, any dues deduction from a public employee’s paycheck requires affirmative consent. Agency shop clauses remain lawful in private-sector contracts unless state law prohibits them.
Maintenance of Membership
Maintenance of membership doesn’t force anyone to join. If you voluntarily become a member, though, you’re locked in for the full term of the collective bargaining agreement. You must keep paying dues and stay in good standing until the contract expires.
These agreements include a narrow escape window, typically 15 to 30 days right before the contract’s expiration date. Miss it and your obligation renews for the next contract term automatically. A multi-year contract might have only a brief window every three or four years to walk away, and that deadline can pass without much fanfare if you aren’t watching the calendar.
Open Shop
An open shop is the least restrictive setup. You’re free to join the union or not, pay dues or not, with no consequences either way. The employer cannot penalize you for the decision.
Workers who opt out still receive every wage increase and benefit the union negotiates. The union has a legal duty to represent every employee in the bargaining unit fairly, including non-members, in collective bargaining and grievance proceedings.6National Labor Relations Board. Right to Fair Representation That creates the free-rider tension other arrangement types try to solve.
What Can Override the Arrangement in Your Contract
Right-to-Work States
Federal law lets states go further than the national baseline. Under 29 U.S.C. § 164(b), a state can prohibit any agreement requiring union membership or financial support as a condition of employment.7Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 164 – Construction of Provisions A right-to-work law wipes out union shop and agency shop clauses within that state’s borders. Even if the employer and union both want a mandatory dues provision, the state law overrides their agreement.
Twenty-six states currently have right-to-work laws on the books. In those states, every unionized workplace effectively operates as an open shop. No worker can be fired for refusing to pay dues or fees, regardless of what the collective bargaining agreement says.
Airlines and Railroads
Airline and railroad workers don’t fall under the National Labor Relations Act. The Railway Labor Act governs them and has its own union security rules. It allows union shop agreements with a 60-day membership deadline, and it explicitly overrides state right-to-work laws. The statute says these agreements are valid “notwithstanding any other statute or law of the United States, or Territory thereof, or of any State.”8GovInfo. 45 USC 152 – General Duties A flight attendant based in Texas can be required to pay dues even though Texas has a right-to-work law, because the RLA controls.
As under the NLRA, the actual membership requirement means only paying dues and initiation fees. No one can be denied employment or fired for anything other than failing to make those payments.
Federal Employees
Federal workers operate under a separate framework, the Federal Service Labor-Management Relations Statute (5 U.S.C. Chapter 71). It guarantees every federal employee the right to join or refrain from joining a union “freely and without fear of penalty or reprisal.”9Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 5 USC Ch. 71 – Labor-Management Relations Union security agreements are not permitted in federal workplaces. Dues can be collected only through voluntary written payroll deduction authorizations, so the entire federal workforce functions as an open shop no matter which state the office sits in.
Limiting What Your Dues Fund
Beck Rights
Even where a union security clause requires payment, you can limit what your money funds. In Communications Workers of America v. Beck, the Supreme Court held that under 29 U.S.C. § 158(a)(3), a union cannot spend fees collected from objecting non-members on activities unrelated to collective bargaining. Your required payment can only go toward negotiating contracts, administering agreements, and handling grievances. Not political lobbying, organizing other workplaces, or charitable donations.10Legal Information Institute. Communications Workers of America v Harry E. Beck, Jr., et al.
You typically must submit a written objection to the union to exercise these rights. The union has to notify you of your Beck rights when it first tries to collect dues, and it must issue a reasonably prominent annual reminder to all represented workers. That notice must explain your right to object, provide enough financial information for you to evaluate the fee reduction, and describe any internal procedure for filing an objection.3National Labor Relations Board. Causing or Attempting To Cause an Employer To Discriminate If the union never gives you this notice and then tries to get you fired for non-payment, that’s an unfair labor practice.
Religious Objections
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act requires employers and unions to accommodate workers who hold sincere religious objections to joining or financially supporting a union. The most common accommodation is redirecting the equivalent of your dues to a charity that the employee, union, and employer all agree on.11U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Section 12: Religious Discrimination If your objection is narrower — you oppose the union’s support of a specific political cause, say, rather than unionism itself — an accommodation might reduce the amount owed or redirect only the portion tied to that cause.
The employer or union can refuse an accommodation only if it would impose more than a minimal burden on operations, a standard the Supreme Court tightened in its 2023 Groff v. DeJoy decision, which clarified that “undue hardship” requires a showing of substantial cost in the context of the business overall. An accommodation can also be denied if it would override seniority rights guaranteed by the collective bargaining agreement.